Re “A Charter School That May Test Your Imagination”
[img]1409|left|Ms. Jacobs, left, and Ms. Rodov||no_popup[/img]Two young women packing the most imaginative idea of the season for a charter school in Culver City are scheduled to stand before the School Board on Tuesday night at 7 o’clock.
Seeking to exponentially expand the educational minds of the community, Florina Rodov and Jessica Jacobs will be petitioning the Board to approve their application for a virtual school catering to two often dismissed segments of the population:
At-risk students and professional children, actors, both known for their lack of affection for the classroom.
Their project is The Innovatory School for Professional Youth, ISPY to longtime television fans (ispycharter@gmail.com).
By way of introducing themselves and their creative charter, Ms. Jacobs and Ms. Rodov have been crisscrossing Culver City throughout the spring, establishing community connections, knocking on office doors and ringing residential doorbells to familiarize neighbors and solicit their support.
“ISPY's target population is the youth who have already dropped out of traditional school,” Ms. Jacobs says.
“Our charter school will meet the needs of out-of-area child professionals, local homeschooling families, and students who prefer to get out in the world to learn.
“We want to make it clear to all interested parties that while we are proposing to bring a game-changing educational model to the city, we are in no way trying to replace CCUSD's quality education programs.”
Ms. Rodov and Ms. Jacobs, both with lengthy education resumés, have met with leaders of government, non-profits and business. They have asked them to sign onto the following statement of support:
As explained by its founders, The Innovatory School for Professional Youth (ISPY), a Big Picture Learning 6-12 charter school, is groundbreaking in that it is both a college preparatory and career training school. As such, it appears to address the needs of two populations of children that are currently under-served: child professionals (performers, musicians, athletes) and at-risk students. The commonality between these two groups is that they do not thrive in a traditional school, but flourish when given the opportunity to pursue their passions through independent study, project-based work in the professional world via internships, mentorships and early college opportunities. ISPY will bring back to CCUSD a significant number of students: homeschoolers, students currently attending out-of-District virtual programs and dropouts.
Additionally, ISPY will create a bridge between the education and business communities, and because students’ projects will be world-changing, will bring positive attention to the District and the city. If the School District decides to accept the charter petition, I will be an ISPY supporter in the community.
Among those who have signed on are Downtown businessmen John Byers, Ken Kaufman, owner of Rush Street and City Tavern, Alan Schulman, owner of Akasha, Jessica Whaley of the Downtown Business Assn., Sue Robins of the Culver City Chamber of Commerce Education Committee, Giselle Jones of Get-Lit Words Ignite, the leading non-profit presenter of literary performance, education and teen poetry programs, and former School Board and City Council members.
Ms. Jacobs and Ms. Rodov have been hopscotching Culver City, attending a patchwork of community events, meeting with teachers, administrators and homeschooling group. Still, they should have enough energy in reserve to launch The Innovatory School for Professional Youth.
The next move is the School Board’s.
